The virtual reality (VR) subscription service HTC unveiled for its Viveport VR app store at CES in January will be offered at a palatable price point and be available to Vive owners in the next few weeks, according to statements HTC SVP of VR Rikard Steiber made to Upload VRon Monday at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC).

Viveport is the official app store for HTC Vive that focuses on VR experiences and games targeted to the wider consumer base. SteamVR, the original platform through which HTC Vive users could access content, will continue to focus primarily on robust gaming experiences.

The service will be affordable for consumers and could prove particularly appealing to VR app developers and publishers.

Consumers will get VR experience selection without committing to purchasing.The subscription service will cost consumers $6.99 for five VR experiences per month, equating to roughly $1.40 per experience. Consumers can carry over chosen experiences from one month to the next or swap them out for different experiences.

VR app developers and publishers will get greater exposure and a majority of the revenue split for subscription sales. Developers who opt in to the subscription service will receive 60% of revenue from subscriptions related to their title, while HTC will take the remaining 40%. This model will incentivize developers to create truly engaging and sticky VR experiences for consumers, according to China Regional President of Vive Alvin Graylin.

A VR app subscription model could help alleviate two of the VR industry’s biggest problems: First, figuring out how to adequately monetize, and second, pushing developers to create sticky apps that keep users coming back.

VR app monetization is problematic because the wider consumer base is used to free apps but can be tricky to advertise to in the VR environment. Digital consumers have been conditioned by smartphone app stores to expect quality digital experiences for little to no upfront cost. The large majority of smartphone apps in the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play store can be downloaded for free. However, most of these free apps rely on in-app advertising or in-app purchases to generate revenue. While advertising in VR is a possible monetization option, it has to strike the right balance between ads and experiences, as VR offers a much more personal experience than accessing content on a smartphone. These issues can make it difficult to effectively monetize, but also make the market ripe for a subscription service. The need to find effective monetization solutions will become more pressing as the currently sparse VR app space becomes more crowded; 24% of game developers are creating content for VR headsets in 2017, according to the GDC (see chart, below).

A subscription service will also drive developers to create replayable VR experiences. Some of the most popular VR content on the market right now has almost no replay value, meaning they’re enjoyable for a consumer to experience once but fail to inspire repeated visits to the app. Rewarding developers with a subscription revenue split will help to incentivize developers to create a longer VR experience with more forks and details in order to increase replay value. This will ultimately help VR gain traction in the greater consumer market.

As aversion to advertising continues to grow and as ad-blocking adoption increases across the globe, publishers and brands are turning to immersive video — namely 360-degree video, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) — to win back some of their lost market share.

Immersive video can provide the impactful, emotion-driven storytelling that's needed to capture the attention of consumers and cut through the saturated ad space.

Already, brands across numerous industries have seen significant success. For example, Hong Kong Airlines’ 360-degree ad was 35 times more effective than the same traditional 2D ad. Meanwhile, Lionsgate's Blair Witch VR campaign elicited a 57% voluntary replay rate. And consumers are confident in the future of immersive video – 63% of US consumers who’ve tried an immersive experience feel it’s the “next big thing” in video, according to a YuMe study.

Dylan Mortensen, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on immersive video that breaks down the benefits of each immersive video format and outlines the ways in which brands and publishers can implement each format into their digital strategy.

Here are some key points from the report:

Google and Facebook continue to dominate the digital ad space. Excluding Facebook and Google, the digital industry saw a 2% ad revenue decline year-over-year in H1 2016, according to the IAB.

Marketers are falling behind on the consumer shift to mobile. Consumers in the US spent over a third of their total media time on mobile devices in 2016, while only 17% of advertisers' digital spend went toward mobile.

360-degree video presents an opportunity for advertisers to reach massive audiences, while allowing viewers to engage with ads as they see fit. The format also has the potential to generate longer viewing times.

AR blends the physical and digital worlds. The global AR market is forecast to grow at a nearly 81% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2016 to 2024, according to Global Market Insights.

VR is the most complex experience, but also the most rewarding. VR content was found to elicit higher emotional engagement and longer engagement periods than traditional 2D, according to YuMe and Nielsen. BI Intelligence predicts that global VR headset shipments will increase 359% over the next six years, from 12 million in 2017 to just over 55 million in 2022.

In full, the report:

Highlights the rising popularity of immersive video with consumers and brands.

Outlines successful use cases that have propelled brands’ overall reach and retention.

Forecasts the growth of the virtual reality market.

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